Around The AHL

The second best league in the world gets set for puck drop Friday night and we prepare you with a ranking of the teams from 1-30. The American League's 75th season gets going Friday evening. Hershey, coming off back-to-back Calder Cup championships, is aiming to become the first club to spin off three-straight since the Springfield Indians’ 1960-62 reign.

After a dominating performance all season, Hershey finished on top, despite facing a resilient Texas Stars club in the final. HERSHEY, PA. – The Calder Cup will be adorned with the Hershey Bears' name for the 11th time.
The American League does not engrave the names of individual players and coaches on the Calder Cup, but for all the big-name AHLers and prospects like John Carlson and Karl Alzner who dot the Hershey lineup, the Bears have their fair share of players whose names once shone far less brightly.

After gaining a 2-0 series lead against the powerful Hershey Bears, the Texas Stars dropped two in a row at home. The Texas Stars have themselves a fight with the Hershey Bears now.
After an open to the Calder Cup final that few observers anticipated, the Stars will need every possible advantage to wrestle the Cup away from the American League’s defending champions.

The Texas Stars stunned Hershey's home crowd in Game 1 and now the Bears will play in their first series deficit this spring. HERSHEY, PA. – Two themes emerged early in the 2009-10 American League season as the Hershey Bears tore up opposing defenses and threatened to completely rewrite the league’s record book:
1.

The Texas Stars are looking for a Calder Cup final berth, but the Hamilton Bulldogs added a couple key players to their roster for Game 7. For now, the Hershey Bears can be content to sit back, practice and take in the warmer weather that May brings, while the Hamilton Bulldogs and Texas Stars beat on each other one more time for the right to face the Bears in the Calder Cup final.

While the Manchester Monarchs are giving the favored Hershey Bears a serious run, while Texas' Stars try to return from a 2-0 deficit. Life looked good for the Hershey Bears as they packed the team bus and headed to New Hampshire last weekend after taking the first two games of their conference final series with the Manchester Monarchs.

Can Bernier stop powerful Hershey?; Can Hamilton take a bite out of Texas?; AHL well represented at worlds; and more. The American League and its swift-moving playoff bracket is already into the conference finals, with Wednesday night marking the end of a long lay-off for the powerhouse Hershey Bears.

Rochester has its season end in an unflattering way... Keane's future with the Moose... and more from the development league. For a club that made the Calder Cup playoffs after a two-season drought, the Rochester Americans hardly ended their season on a positive note.

Penalties are killing Albany in their showdown against Hershey; the playoff wrap; and Devils moving? The Albany River Rats are in tough in their second round series against the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears.
If the River Rats can’t avoid repeated trips to the penalty box, they will see a quick exit.

Backup Tyler Plante assumes No. 1 job for Rochester in the playoffs; Lowell snaps Jersey playoff curse; and more. A week of American League playoff hockey is finished and the post-season is unfolding pretty much as expected.
But surprises can be found and the Portland Pirates' collapse is at the forefront.

Can Hershey continue its domination... Wolf Pack mentality... league leader rundown... coaching jobs... milestones... and more. The 2010 Calder Cup playoffs have started amid a batch of intriguing storylines.
As it is, this spring’s post-season will be missing some familiar entries.

The final weekend of the regular season will decide the fate of several teams and impact personnel and even affiliations. The American League regular season wraps up this weekend and the playoff picture, of course, remains unsettled.
In the AHL, where development sometimes holds equal footing with wins and losses in the minds of most GMs, making the playoffs still matters.